Ideal travel time should be 2 years. Otherwise, you'll be bogged down with exams while the data scientists who are fresh out of masters programs are outcompeting you because they're devoting more time to actual work.

Four exams? Why not just get rid of them all and grant all accredited universities the ability to hand out credentials as long as the GPA is a minimum 2.6?

You seem to be proposing that everyone with an actuarial science degree be fully credentialed. There is so much variability among people with any given degree. The credential is meant to ensure consistency and standards.

A top priority would be not to devalue the credential. Can you imagine how credentialed actuaries would feel if their credentials that they spent so many years earning were suddenly handed out with far lower standards?

The number of requirements can be reduced, but only if it does not materially reduce the standards for the designation.

I would, however, support changes that make it easier to earn the credential if I believe that candidates meeting the new requirements would represent the profession at least as well. Significant changes to the FAP course might be an example of this.

I don't know if I agree with your specific proposal, but without a doubt the number of requirements could be reduced while also producing more meaningful credentials.

With a stronger focus on problem solving and abstraction instead of swift algorithm execution (numeric calculations) for a set of common toy problems, the exams would be harder to pass and more relevant to actual actuarial work.

EDIT: The FAP course also needs to be replaced without a doubt.

You're absolutely right but there's a lot of resistance for these types of changes. You're trying to create a set of exams that require more creativity and problem solving ability instead of raw study effort and computational prowess. In general, people like to follow procedures and like to be rewarded for doing so. They also like to be rewarded for effort instead of talent since that seems to be more "controllable". And the type of exam that you're promoting is harder to administer and grade. IMO, most companies just want people that can follow procedures and put in the effort (attributes that tend to be correlated with those needed to pass professional exams).